1. What Is a Contract?
2. What Is a Consulting Agreement?
3. Three Key Elements of a Contract
4. Information Included in a Consulting Agreement

A consultant contract is necessary when a consultant enters into a business agreement. A consultant is also known as a contractor or freelancer and is a person or business that provides their professional advice or services to a company or client and gets compensated in return. There is normally a certain industry or area that a consultant specializes in, such as engineering, human resources, or marketing.

What Is a Contract?

A legal document between two parties is called a contract and involves an exchange of value. If there is something of value, such as goods, money, or services, that is given in exchange for something else, such as consulting services, the agreement is considered a contract. It doesn't matter if the service or task is easy and quick or if it's more consuming and takes time.

Contracts can be just one page or over 100 pages long depending on what needs to be defined and how many complex issues there are. Sometimes they can be in the form of a letter of agreement, which is less formal and shorter but still binding.

What Is a Consulting Agreement?

A consulting agreement is defined as a written contract that defines the terms of a certain service between a client and consultant. The agreement goes over all the terms of a consulting service to ensure the business gets the help they need and the consultant gets the payment they're owed. It's a smart idea to have an attorney look over the contract before both parties sign it.

There are several reasons to use a consulting agreement. Consultants should use a contract before they begin providing any services to another business, individual, or organization in return for monetary compensation. They can ensure their interests are protected and make sure they get paid by the customer due to the formal written agreement that clearly outlines the services they're providing.

 A customer should use a consulting agreement when they hire a consultant to engage in any service for the business. They can make sure that company information is protected by using non-disclosure clauses when using a consulting agreement. Having the signed contract means both parties know what they're getting out of the partnership.

Three Key Elements of a Contract

A contract must contain the following parts:

  • An offer
  • Acceptance
  • Consideration

The offer is something that's proposed by a business or person. As an example, it can state that the client will act on behalf of the organization as the consultant in order to perform the agreed service. Every contract also needs acceptance, which is when a party accepts the terms that are offered in the contract. It's often a smart idea to state a time limit on any letter of agreement or contract that's offered to a client. It might state that the offer will expire in a certain number of days unless it's signed and accepted.

The contract must also have consideration, which is the amount that will be paid for the service. The contract can simply say that the services will be rendered in exchange for a payment of $500 each month.

Information Included in a Consulting Agreement

A consulting contract has contact information for both the service provider and the customer. The full names and titles of who is involved in the deal should be listed and double-checked to make sure they're spelled correctly. It's helpful to make a list of what the project goals are and see when the end is. The services provided should be listed so it's clear what services are being provided by the consultant and what their responsibilities are.

Creating different checkpoints can be helpful so that the client will sign off on each phase to make sure they're satisfied with the work. If both parties agree to this, the sign-off process should also be listed under the item of responsibilities. Compensation is important to include, as it talks about when and how much the company will pay the contract for their services. There should also be a confidentiality agreement so the consultant won't talk about private information, such as client lists, trade secrets, and marketing campaigns.

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